ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP), Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and MELD-sodium (MELD-Na) scores are used for predicting disease severity and mortality among patients with end-stage liver disease. However, data regarding their usefulness in predicting the short-term outcome of end-stage liver disease are not available in India. This prospective study compared the CTP score, MELD score and MELD-Na score as predictors of short-term outcome among patients with end-stage liver disease. METHODS: CTP, MELD and MELD-Na scores were determined in 171 patients with end-stage liver disease at a tertiary healthcare centre in India at the time of admission, and the concordance (C-) statistics of the three scores for 3-month mortality were assessed and compared. The aetiology of end-stage liver disease and the clinical presentation were determined. RESULTS: The CTP score, MELD score and MELD-Na score on day 1 were significantly higher among non-survivors than among survivors (p < 0.0001 each). The C-statistic for 3-month mortality for the CTP score was 0.93 (p < 0.0001), that for the MELD score was 0.86 (p < 0.0001) and that for the MELD-Na score was 0.83 (p < 0.0001). The C-statistics of these scores differed significantly for 3-month mortality, and the CTP score was better than the MELD (p < 0.0001) and MELD-Na (p < 0.0001) scores in predicting 3-month mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The CTP, MELD and MELD-Na scores were very good predictors of mortality at 3 months among patients with end-stage liver disease. The CTP score was superior to the MELD and MELD-Na scores in predicting 3-month mortality.
